This past weekend I had the privilege to go to Lowville, NY where I conducted a prayer experience. It was an awesome time of the outpouring of the Spirit of God.
While I was there the name Daniel Nash came up, so along with a great friend we went to view his grave and memorial. The experience left me a little staggered as I realized what his life was about. In brief he was one of the two or three men who went into a town or city 3 or 4 weeks before Charles Finney was to come.
Daniel and Abel Clary would often go to the place and fall on their faces before God and pray with groans too deep for words. In other words they bombarded heaven for the needs and sins of the location. When Charles Finney showed up the town was ripe for a revival. Finney stated that he could not preach repentance without the prayers of these men. This was the lead in to the Second Great Awakening.
When I got home I read in 1 Kings (14) about three of the kings of Israel (northern kingdom). Each of them did evil in the sight of the Lord. Each of them had God’s justice meted out on them. The nation of Israel in each case followed the model of the king and did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Then, as is my habit, I went over to one of the prophets; in this case it was Hosea (2) and read what he said about the nation of Israel. He told the nation that they were like prostitutes with their flirty and sexual innuendo way of life. In an easy to understand symbolism he told Israel that they had set up a society where no one was sure who the father of the children being born was. He also said that the fathers were not taking their responsibilities as fathers. He concludes with the concept that when a nation has the practice of no sexual boundaries that that nation is in decline and judgment can’t be far behind.
Finally, I read in Matthew 14 where Jesus heard that his cousin, John had been beheaded because of an overtly sexual dance that was spawned by jealousy because John had called Herod out because he had taken his brother’s wife.
Jesus took this opportunity to go to a private solitary place where He prayed. It is likely that He prayed all night for comfort. He also likely prayed for the people of Israel because the next day when they showed up after walking all night He had compassion on them and healed the sick.
What do these last three things have to do with each other? They all describe a nation that has heavy cultural issues. They are all about the decline of morality in the area of sexuality. When a nation or culture loses its purity in this area the nation will face the judgment of God.
This is all drawn together in the life of Daniel Nash. He had been voted out of his church after leading them in two revivals that brought many people into the kingdom. Then he contracted a serious eye infection. He could not stand light. For 3 or 4 months he did nothing but stay in a dark room so that he could recover. During this time he could not read or write. It was in this time that he learned how to pray. It totally transformed his Christian life. For the next 7+ years he did nothing but travel ahead of Charles Finney and prayed and fasted for a month for a spiritual breakthrough.
He was serious about seeing his culture recover. He said about his prayer life: “Considering the souls being saved and the very culture of the area being changed in such a revival, it should be no surprise that persecution came to these laborers.”
Did you see that, he prayed for the culture of the area to be changed?
It is now time for those who call themselves by the name of Christ (Christians) to rise up and pray for our culture to change. Without this prayer the culture will continue to decline and can the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah be far behind?
Daniel Nash’s final words were: “Say, if you please, that I die in the faith of the Son of God. Of myself I am nothing. I trust alone in the merit and death of a crucified savior for pardon and acceptance.”
So will you join me in prayer and fasting for our nation and ask the Lord to revive our Christian culture? It’s time for the Third Great Awakening.
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